Poetry and the Media
What "news" do poets bring, and does it matter? This panel
examines the "black hole" of poetry with respect to media coverage
and the role of the media in the dissemination of poetry. Virtually no
poetry appears in newspapers today, but that was not always the case.
It would seem that our forefathers and mothers understood the inherent
aesthetic value of poetry and its potential to promote ethics without
dogma and to discern truth sans polemic. Poetry fired the imagination
of the public and created expressive use of language without rhetoric;
furthermore, it deciphered meaning with wit and foresight, helping to
publicize and disseminate the news with passion and style. Today, the
media represents poetry and poets as curious subjects of occasional Bill
Moyers specials. But can and should poetry have a wider place on the screen,
on the air, and within the columns of daily newspapers? How can such cultural
change be engendered? Just as important is the growing presence of poetry
on the net, which provides limitless potential for abuse as well as use.
Is there danger that poetry may become so commonplace on the Internet
that it loses meaning altogether?
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the panelists
• Jeff Bartlett is the president and general manager of WMUR-TV. Prior to coming to New Hampshire, he was president and general manager of KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV, Hearst-Argyle Television's ABC affiliates serving the Ft. Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas television market; news director at WBBM-TC, the CBS station in Chicago; news director of WBZ-TV in Boston; and a senior accountant executive at Audience Research and Development, a leading broadcast TV consulting firm. His stations’ awards have included an Associated Press Award for Best Newscast, a Midwest regional Emmy for Newscast, and a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for Best Newscast.
• Ellen Kushner is the host of Public Radio International's "Sound & Spirit," produced by WGBH Boston. The show, launched in 1996, has won awards for its excellence in writing content and production. Kushner studied anthropology and the arts at Bryn Mawr College and Barnard College. After graduation she worked as a fiction editor for New York publishing houses. Soon after she was supporting herself in New York City as a freelance book reviewer, copywriter, literary scout and artist representative. Kushner joined WGBH Radio in 1987 and two years later had her national radio debut as the writer and host of the Nakamichi International Music Series. Kushner's first novel, Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners, has been hailed as the progenitor of the "Mannerpunk" school of fantasy. Her second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won both the 1991 World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award. Her newest novel, written with Delia Sherman, is The Fall of the Kings.
• Allison McNair is host of NH Outlook on New Hampshire Public Television. Her coverage of the state Supreme Court chief justice impeachment proceedings helped NH Outlook receive a nomination for the Boston/New England Emmy Awards. Before coming to NH Outlook, McNair worked as a producer and reporter for NH Roundtable on New Hampshire Public Television. She has received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Entertainment for her work on the program Out and About, as well as several awards for medical reporting.
• Joseph W. McQuaid's career began as a 15-year-old newsroom office boy. He was named editor of the Sunday News in 1971 and he covered local, state, and national politics as well as reported from Europe and the Middle East. He has twice won New England Associated Press writing awards and was recently honored, with the New England Society of Newspaper Editors' "Yankee Quill" award for significant contribution to the advancement of journalism in New England. In 1999 he succeeded Nackey S. Loeb as president and publisher of the Union Leader and in 2000 was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree from Notre Dame College.
• James Rousmaniere Jr. is editor and president of the Keene Sentinel, a daily serving southwestern New Hampshire that was founded in 1799. He came to the Sentinel in 1981 from the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where he reported on economics. In addition ot his management of the Sentinel, he is president of the New England Newspaper Association. Though international media development organizations, he also undertakes management and journalism consultancies with editors and publishers in Asia, Africa, and Central Europe.
• Tree Swenson is the executive director of the American Academy of Poets, which was founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. The Academy sponsors literary programs including National Poetry Month, Online Poetry Classroom and the Poetry Audio Archive, as well as awards ranging from college prizes to the $150,000 Wallace Stevens Award. Swenson also co-founded Copper Canyon Press, which was established as, and still remains, a national press dedicated to the publishing of poetry only. She has worked as art director for Graywolf Press, the director of programs for the Massachusetts Cultural Council and as president/board member of Associated Writing Programs. Swenson has served on various grant and fellowship panels including the National Endowment of the Arts, the New York Sate Council on the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. She received her Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a concentration on nonprofit management.
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